VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Jose, Costa Rica or Tampa?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose, Costa Rica’s own page.

Choose Tampa for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. San Jose, Costa Rica 12, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. San Jose, Costa Rica 42, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Jose, Costa Rica 40, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose, Costa Rica 78, Tampa 55: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 23 points.
Day trips. San Jose, Costa Rica 52, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 2 points.
Good for families. San Jose, Costa Rica 44, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 34 points.
Getting around. San Jose, Costa Rica 30, Tampa 22: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose, Costa Rica 36, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 4 points.
Affordability. San Jose, Costa Rica 54, Tampa 40: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose, Costa Rica 38, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose, Costa Rica 28, Tampa 30: Tampa leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose, Costa Rica and Tampa.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Tampa
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
San Jose, Costa RicaTampa

Where the figures come from

San Jose, Costa Rica's station stands 241 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTampa
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCosta Rican Colon (CRC)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,161 m30 m
Main airportJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Jose, Costa RicaTampa
City population335,007384,959
People per km²7,511848
Museums within 10 km96
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose, Costa Rica or Tampa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.